“Ginormous” has made it into the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It’s, like, so totally zeitgeist. Although its usage is traced back to British military terminology c. 1948. So perhaps it isn’t as great an example of Americanisation as some would think.
PC World has compiled what in considers the most unusual pics found on Google Earth. They range from crop circles to a jet fighter parked in a residential neighbourhood in Paris. Tis here if you’re interested.
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There’s a quirky little panel in the latest issue of Archaeology.
The magazine ran an online poll giving readers a chance to vote for their favourite Maya royal name — names made delightfully exotic by their translation into English.
Topping the poll with 24% of the vote was Smoking Squirrel, followed by 18 Rabbit (15%), Lady Six Sky (13%) and Moon Skull (12%). Others making up the top 10 were Smoke Monkey, Knot-eye Jaguar, Turtle Tooth and Curl Snout.
Translation can make anything funny. Take this ABC News report on how US presidential contenders fare in Chinese; the ballot in Massachusetts could well feature names such as Sticky Rice (Mitt Romney), Triumphant Wheat (John McCain), Tired Forest (Hilary Clinton) and Profound Horse (Barack Obama).
This gentleman believes longer day would suit him best, and so he’s rewriting the laws of the planet to live a 30-hour day instead of the boring old 24 hours. He’s blogging about the experiment.
I can empathise… bad bouts of insomnia have left me in similar situations.
If only a map like this existed for Ireland.
From the latest missive from Popbitch:
Lieutenant Walter Haut was the PR officer at Roswell airbase in 1947, and was the man who supervised the publicity campaign to show people there was no extra-terrestrial encounter but that a weather balloon had crashed. Haut has just died and left an affidavit to be opened on his death. It said that this had just been a cover story, that there had been a UFO and that he had seen small humanoid alien bodies. What a brilliant joke to go out on…?
An interesting quirk to a long-running story. I’m not sure if I’d consider Popbitch a reliable news source, but Haut’s “deathbed confession” was picked up on by various websites during the week, so have a look if you feel inclined.